Pub manager warns of beer and keg shortages 'due to Brexit and coronavirus'

Rob Sharpe, manager of The Avenue in Chanterlands Avenue, said shortages of products including some draught beer, bottles and barrels as well as staffing issues created a “recipe for disaster”.

The manager added while there was hope of a turnaround during the Christmas period, the reluctance of some customers to return after coronavirus restrictions eased was also piling on pressure.

His comments come as pubs, bars, cafes, shops and other retail and hospitality venues have reported shortages of some products in the wake of the pandemic and Brexit.

An Office for National Statistics (ONS) survery of businesses found 13 per cent reported lower than normal stock levels in the two weeks up to Thursday, August 26.

The survey showed 27 per cent for food and accommodation businesses and 25 per cent of wholesale and retail trade firms also reported shortages when buying supplies.

Mr Sharpe said he had struggled to get hold of some bottled drinks and his pub also faced shortages of some draught lagers.

The manager said: “The combination of coronavirus and us leaving the EU has created a recipe for disaster, it’s turned an already bad situation into a worse one.

“Getting hold of bottled products has caused an issue, there’s been times when there’s been shortages of Carling and Coors.

“There’s also a shortage of kegs to store beer in, breweries are getting into a situation where they’re making the beer but we don’t have enough barrels to store it.

“There could be various reasons for that, I think one might be that pubs and other venues got rid of some during lockdown because they didn’t need them then.

“The haulage companies that deliver to us also have a shortage of drivers so that could be a reason too.

“One of the other things that’s affecting hospitality is a shortage in supplies of parts for maintenance.

“That’s to do with the permits needed when they come in from the EU.

“So sometimes we can’t get the parts in to fix things, that’s been a problem since we left.

“Our group has about 15 pubs in Hull and with every one of them you speak to its the same story.

“Some pubs and other hospitality businesses are having to close on a couple of the quieter days in the week.

“It’s also been hard finding staff at the moment, we’ve had two vacancies for kitchen staff live for about a week but no one’s responded.

“So the industry’s having trouble just getting what it needs to function, it would have seemed unthinkable before the pandemic but it’s absolutely the case now.

“Because we’re part of a group we’ve been able to get substitute products in or take stock from other pubs, we’ve got a good network of venues which can help each other.

“But I wouldn’t want to be running an independent pub now, on top of all that prices have been rising including for a lot of food stuffs.

“It could be that they’ve risen rapidly because with lockdown we didn’t see the smaller increases we’d normally see a couple of times a year, so now it’s all come at once.

“But suppliers will also be looking to make up for their own losses during the pandemic.

“We haven’t done as well as we thought since the restrictions were lifted, maybe guests felt more comfortable when the environment was more controlled.

“I think there’s a light at the end of the tunnel, we might struggle for a couple more months but I’m hoping once we get closer to Christmas we’ll get the trade back we’d normally have as well as office parties and the like.

“The end of furlough will also be significant, if you look at the numbers unemployment is high but so are hospitality vacancies, once the support ends it will encourage more people to go back to work.”

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